Iruka blinked to clear his eyes and wiped some of the leaves from the jutsu off his head. 'This' he thought, 'is why I hate using shunshin to enter or leave a building.' Accepting his fate, though, and acknowledging the fact that he would have to rush as is to reach the academy on time, the Chunin ignored the dust and leaves on the floor to survey the state of his home. Mainly, the academy teacher familiarized himself with the buildings layout, and reviewed the gear he had on him and in various storages throughout the small apartment. Noticing that he was lacking in some of the tools his students would later go on to either specialize in or need to know how to lose, the academy teacher began making a mental checklist of items to pick up and various instruction books to have prepared.

Checking his watch, Iruka realized he had only ten minutes to make it to the academy, a task that would be tough to accomplish even if he used the rooftops. Accepting that he would be late, and that he might as well miss an additional five minutes to at least be somewhat prepared, Iruka began gathering up some of the items he would need for what he intended to accomplish – mainly, he needed to convince his class of the severity of their decision to become shinobi.

Taking one last glance at his room, Iruka leaped out of his window and onto the roof below – beginning the mad dash toward the academy. As the instructor made his way toward his meeting with his former – or would it be future – students, he couldn't help but get the odd feeling that he had forgotten something important. 'Ah, ´ the Chunin thought to himself. 'I'm sure it's nothing.'

Meanwhile, back in his apartment, two pictures lay forgotten on the floor, each brown and worn with age. It seemed some things did indeed follow the shinobi through the jutsu.

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Landing softly in the grass outside the academy, Iruka took stock of the situation. The designated meeting area was empty. The Chunin stood up, stretching his muscles in an attempt to work out the kinks developed from moving as thought his limbs were longer and more toned.

'The lawns are empty,' he thought. 'Why are the lawns empty?' Iruka sighed – of course things would never be that simple – this was his class after all.

Channeling chakra to his nose and ears – a trick picked up from an Inuzuka teammate before his death – the Chunin perked his head up attentively, waiting for any signal from his missing students.

Suddenly, the bushes to the left rustled, and Iruka's hand shot down to his right kunai pouch, pulling out a blunted practice replica. Faster than a civilian eye could see, the sensei's hand shot out, the kunai shooting out into the bushes.

"Gah, who the hell…" the voice trailed off as another Chunin-sensei stepped out of the bush, obviously just as late as he, rubbing his thigh. "Are you crazy?" the sensei asked. "What would you throw around kunai for, there's no danger here!"

Iruka just shrugged, "a ninja must always be prepared for danger, even when he thinks he is safe."

The instructor just looked at him like he was crazy. "Even so, this is Konoha, not a war-field," he replied. "Anyway, they moved the class introductions inside, something about having to repair the training fields after an Uchiha and a Hyuuga from the sixth year class took their evaluation spar a bit too far," the instructor muttered this bit of information as he walked past, limping ever so slightly into the school building. He never saw the pale, unseeing look that came over Iruka's eyes as he mentioned Konoha not being a war-field. Nor did he see the same ghostly images of dead bodies, crumbling ruins, and black fire consuming the hidden village.

Snapping back to reality, Iruka followed after the instructor. "Konoha is not a war-field," he whispered to himself, "and I won't allow it to become one…"

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Back at Iruka's apartment, the door slowly creaked open – the invader clearly aware and weary of the likelihood of traps. Satisfied, the unknown figure opened the door fully, a smile growing on their face.

"Iruka-kohai," the figure called out. "I hope you don't mind me coming in uninvited – the neighbors were starting to get mad at me for knocking so loudly," saying this, the figure reached a hand up to rub their head, obviously the victim of the surprisingly accurate-thrower that was the old civilian lady next door.

Hearing no reply, the individual moved farther into the room, looking for signs of the Chunin. "Perhaps," the character said to themselves. "Perhaps Iruka-kohai is sleeping in late?" Accepting this to be the most likely option, the character proceeded further into the domicile, in search of a bedroom – stepping right over two old pictures, left unnoticed for the second time that day.

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Iruka entered his classroom – well, what he would come to know as his classroom – and saw exactly what he expected to see: a group of rowdy six-year-olds who were all anxious to become ninja, and had grown impatient waiting for their sensei. Scanning the crowd, Iruka took note of the (character) of each student, comparing it to what he remembered. Shikamaru, for example, was sitting quietly next to Choji, looking half-asleep with his chin resting on his hands, but closely observing his fellow students. 'That lazyness' Iruka thought, making a mental note, 'is one of the first things I'll have to get rid of – in all my students.'

In the future, Shikamaru had been one of the few reasons Konohagakure was able to keep on its feet and remain in the war – once properly motivated, the boy was able to work out some of the most impeccable strategies. This train of thought, however, was leading to topics Iruka didn't have time to dwell on right now, so clearing his throat he called the class to attention.

Then he tried again.

Sighing in defeat, Iruka turned to the tried and true way of getting his class' attention – which in hindsight it probably how things went the first time – and used his Big Head no Jutsu. Finally, the class settled down and turned towards Iruka, eyes wide.

"Now that I have your attention," the Chunin began, "my name is Umino Iruka and I will be your instructor here at the academy."

Everyone was still quiet and staring – a testament to his jutsu's effectiveness.

Iruka sighed. "My job is to train each of you to be the best shinobi you can, but this is not a one-way street," the instructor began explaining. "Each of you must put in the effort if you expect to be of any use to the village. This is a two-way street – if each of you listens to me and does the work, you will succeed. I also need you to trust me – trust is a valuable thing in the ninja world, but whether you trust your teammates or not can mean the difference between life and death."

A few of the children's eyes lit up, as if they were beginning to understand what he was saying – not all of this class would be enjoyable, but if they listened and paid attention, they would understand that everything Iruka had to teach them is what they must know to become successful shinobi. Iruka decided to accept this small success for today and move on.

"Now, each class will begin with me calling ro-" the door sliding open cut off the instructor halfway through his statement. Stepping through it was something – well, someone – out of Iruka's nightmares. The Chunin closed his eyes and rubbed his head – he had hoped he wouldn't have to deal with this problem so early, but it was to be expected. Perhaps he could take him outside for a talk and – but no, he couldn't do anything so sudden, so soon. It would draw suspicion.

"Maa, Iruka-sensei, when you didn't show up in time I went to your house to see if you were running late," the man said, walking over to stand with Iruka next to the Instructor's desk. "We must have just passed each other on the way here – but I suppose it's all good now."

"Gomen," Iruka began. "I would have left a note saying I was running late – but I didn't expect you to visit my house, Mizuki-sensei." The scarred Chunin closed his eyes, trying to force a relaxed smile, closing his eyes and attempting to block the feelings welling up in him. He knew he'd have to face the man who almost killed Naruto – he knew he'd have to take care of him before his ignorance could damage the entire class – but by kami, he needed a bit more time before he could accept that he would need to kill his best frie- former best friend.

He must have managed to pass off being embarrassed rather well, because when he opened his eyes Mizuki was smiling and nodding his head good-naturedly. "Alright then," Mizuki spoke up, turning toward the class. "I already took roll, so I don't think we need to have Iruka-sensei go through it again, now do we," he asked, the class letting out a resounding "no, Mizuki-sensei."

Iruka decided now would be a good time to retake control of the class – Mizuki might be the senior instructor, but Iruka had plans for the class, and the best way to ensure they get carried out would be to have more influence over the students – if he let himself be resigned to the role of supporting instructor, that most certainly would go away.

"Alright class," Iruka called out, cutting Mizuki off from continuing his own speech. "I know for a fact that one of the other classes is using the front lawn to perform their evaluations, so while we wait for it to open up, who here thinks they know the three basic forms of ninja fighting?"

Iruka scanned over the crowd. He was tossing out a few basic questions to get a general feel for which students had already begun taking their training seriously.

One student, a civilian, raised his hand. Iruka was silently surprised that none of the ninja children had raised their hands – then he realized why. Each had their own specific reason as to why they weren't paying attention, but the fact was that the ninja-raised children had already decided this small section of class time wasn't important enough to pay attention to – they were simply waiting until they could use the field.

The civilian, for his part, had obviously decided he had waited long enough, and, clearing his throat to gather the attention of his sensei, called out the answer, "The three ways a ninja will fight is with ninjutsu, taijutsu, and ninja tools."

Iruka, turning his attention back to the civilian, called out a short praise before deciding he would need to address the small issue the ninja-raised families had. "Correct, the most basic skills we will practice here, and what most of the graduation exam will consist of, is ninja techniques, hand-to-hand combat, and your use of some common tools, mainly kunai and shuriken." He then added on, "when we do the small evaluation today, we will cover only the last one – tools. The others will be focused on later after explaining the background information you'll need to understand them."

While most of the civilian-raised kids nodded, and all of the ninja-raised children perked up their heads at this revelation, only one child – an Inuzuka boy – apparently had a problem with this. "But Sensei," he called out, his high-pitched prepubescent voice giving a slightly comical contrast to the rough-tough style of his clan outfit. "How are you going to help strengthen us if you don't know what we can do at the very beginning – you are holding those of us who already have some training back," the clan kid finished, obviously content that the few moves of his clan's taijutsu style he had learned earned him the right to act above the others.

Iruka decided he didn't like this kid – he needed to nip this in the bud now. "As your sensei, it is my decision what, and when, you will learn. I have my reasons for teaching you the way I will."

"But Sesei," the kid continued, "real shinobi have access to whatever material they believe they are ready for – why won't you help those of us who are ahead become more powerful – do you not want us to become successful ninja?"

"You think you're ready to become shinobi?" Iruka asked the smirking student.

"I'm here for a reas-"

"No." Iruka cut him off. "Whatever reason you have for being here, it certainly isn't because you are ready to become a shinobi."

"B-but sensei," another student called out. "Isn't that why we're here, to be trained as a ninja? How can you tell us we aren't ready to start learning if we are here – we passed the entrance exam."

"The entrance exam," Iruka shot back, "only requires you to be able to balance on a log, throw a kunai in the general direction of where the testers want it, and be able to write your name." Iruka gave the class a long, sweeping glare. "All of these things, while forming the basics of the tools a ninja will use, teach you nothing about what you must do as a ninja." Here, Iruka paused. Looking over his class, he could see that he now had the full attention of them all, even those who had been clowning around to begin with. He also noticed a few pairs of eyes gathered at the door – apparently a few teachers who had decided to let their classes out early decided to stop in and examine the newest instructor. 'I suppose' Iruka thought to himself, 'I might as well see how much I can impact the other classes – no reason to only focus on making my class actually be prepared as shinobi.'

"Tell me," Iruka asked, refocussing his attention on his class. "Where does the loyalty of a ninja lie?"

Multiple hands raised, but Iruka knew each would simply say the same things – and none of them would be right. He decided to pick the Haruno girl – she already proved her intelligence to the class today, and she needed to learn that not every question could be solved with a textbook answer.

Sakura stood. "The shinobi's first loyalty is to the village," she began. "Afterwards may follow various organizations within their village, such as ANBU, or if they are an instructor, their students, with family sitting either above or below depending on the clan. Also-" Iruka raised his hand, cutting her off.

"Correct," he began, Sakura beaming in response. "But not entirely – anyone else?" Her smile disappearing, Sakura sat back down. No one else raised their hand. "Very well." The Chunin-sensei continued.

"A shinobi's first loyalty should be to the village, yes. This does not, however, mean that the shinobi is acting only out of the 'good of the village'" trying to lighten the mood slightly, Iruka actually raised his hands and made air-quotes upon saying this. "As a ninja, you must never allow yourself to become devoted to a single group or ideal for the sake of that group – even for Konoha. Rather, you should act out of love for the people of that group. We, as shinobi of Konohagakure, do not serve the Hokage out of loyalty to the seat of the Hokage – we serve him because of our loyalty to him, the man, and out of a desire to protect the people in the village who are precious to us." Iruka paused again for effect. "Nothing is stronger or more deadly than a ninja with someone to protect. Nothing – not even your own life – being at risk will empower you more than the desire to protect your precious people. Even a Jonin must be wary when he threatens an enemy Genin's family or team." Iruka new this to be true more than anyone – despite his best attempts at preventing it, he'd seen how Naruto was when deep in the conflict of the Fourth Shinobi War. Iruka decided to change the topic – he needed to steer this back in a direction that would actually help what he'd come here to accomplish. Inspiring everyone in the class was great, but he needed to weed out those who would not be able to handle the life of a shinobi.

"Tell me," Iruka called out, gathering the classes' attention once again. "Out of all of you – show of hands, please – who believes they are ready and willing to put the effort in and train in the ninja way?" Nearly everyone raised their hands.

"Once this is started, you must complete your shinobi education – not out of a demand, but because it will be almost impossible to change your life choice once you set out." As Iruka stated this, a few hands began to waver, but none dropped. "If you wish to stop and dedicate your life to something else, or if you want to wait for another year – no one will judge you, this life is not for everyone."

A few hands dropped, but the children remained, for despite the scare Iruka had given them so far, he had also inspired them greatly.

"Now," Iruka called, nodding slowly. "I need to determine what skill level you each are at, and I will tell you now rather than later – if you show up tomorrow, that will be your silent statement that you are ready, and we will begin actively training then."

Finishing his statement, Iruka began ushering them outside – while the training grounds may be damaged, he could still view what sort of training they might have been given by friends or family on the lawn, and hopefully, through questioning, be able to provide cover for his knowledge of what skills they would later develop.

Mizuki who, for his part, had been standing silently, lips slightly parted, since Iruka took control of the class from him, followed. He was stunned – this was not the Iruka he knew and was friends with.

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Out on the grass, Iruka had the children form up into twelve lines of four, and although one line had three and he, by the kami, couldn't figure out why. Deciding to uncover which student had cut class later, Iruka proceeded to have them each throw five kunai and five shuriken at a tree seven meters out. While his students did so, the Chunin paced about, observing. He wanted to see what the children could do now, before he began teaching them. He also wanted to use this time to get a few things out of the way.

As he walked toward one of the farther groups, the Chunin noticed a child from an unknown ninja clan explain to a civilian the correct way to hold his shuriken. This brought a small smirk to his lips – perhaps his earlier lectures had instilled some sense of teamwork into his students. Looking back to his destination, Iruka noticed the student he needed to talk to was done, having lazily tossed his tools in the relative direction of the target and sat back down under a tree not being used as a target. It didn't matter much, but at least no students would complain about how he talked with just that student after making a big deal of working with them all together – they'd assume he was getting lectured for the lazy performance.

"Nara-kun, I need to speak with you."

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Iruka sighed, having just watched the last parent pick up their child from the classroom and leave. Today was tougher than he imagined – he needed a nice long sleep. Luckily, things were going as well as he could hope for, especially so soon. The only problem was –

"Iruka-kohai," Mizuki called as he entered the room, shutting the door behind him. "I need to talk with you before you leave, is that okay?"

Iruka paled slightly, on the inside – he kept his outside reaction as expected, a small, tired smile and a nod of his head. "Sure, Mizuki-senpai – I could use some coffee though, so let's head to the teacher's lounge."

Mizuki nodded, then opened the door. He turned back to Iruka, "coming?"

The two walked through the halls – empty, as all the other teachers had finished and were either heading home or in the lounge themselves. "So, Iruka-kohai, how'd you like your first day with your class?" Mizuki asked, trying to lighten the mood. The tension was thick between them, but Mizuki had no idea what caused it – what caused his friend to act so strange.

Iruka gave another exhausted grin, "good, but those kids will be a handful and a half. I'm starting to question why I let you talk me into this, Mizuki-senpai." Iruka forced himself to sound cheerful, trying to remember that this wasn't the man who had betrayed him.

"Because you needed something to do, you work well with kids, and I need someone to handle paperwork for me – while I'm no hokage, I still have more than I'd like, hence you, minion!" Mizuki's voice raised - he was glad Iruka was acting like his friend again. He'd have to remind him that he was supposed to be the senior teacher and lead class, but he would do it later.

"Speaking of paperwork," Iruka began. "Mind if I take a look at the roll sheet?"

"Yeah," Mizuki shot back, "you should probably get to know the kids names, huh." He handed him over the manila folder, already a few inches thick just from the roll sheet and small files on each student. He wasn't kidding when he said he had paperwork – and lots of it.

Iruka just smiled and took the folder, flipping it open and skimming through the names. He looked up a few he didn't recognize, like that of the kid who had helped the civilian and the Inuzuka who had been so cocky in class today, but mostly was looking for the one who was not here.

What he saw made him frieze in place.

Mizuki turned when he noticed Iruka had stopped, and was about to call out to him when Iruka shoved the folder into his hands, briskly walking away.

"Sorry Mizuki-senpai," the Chunin said, his voice and face blank. "I just remember a promise I made to meet up with someone else, I'll talk to you tomorrow though."

Mizuki just stood there, wondering what had made his best friend leave him so suddenly.

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Iruka's whole body tensed as he set his foot down on the landing of Naruto's floor of the apartment building. The boy had the whole area to himself – no one wanting to live near a demon – and although most would consider it a boon to not have to deal with neighbors, it only hurt the ostracized boy more. A shiver crept down Iruka's spine as he walked down the hall – he still couldn't believe he ignored the absence of Naruto the first time he had met his class, all those years ago.

Iruka came to a sudden stop. He smelled something strange in the air. He smelled blood.

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AND CUT!

Hey guys, so that right there is the latest chapter of "Sayonara, Iruka-Sensei!"

So I have three things to say, but first, thanks to all who reviewed last chapter: Furudere , AnimeLuver778 , and ElectraSev5n !

First off, no, this is not based off "Sayonara, Zetsubo-Sensei!" except the name. I thought it sounded cool and fit with the fact that Iruka is, you know, sent back in time? That said, the title is really happy sounding, and this story is nowhere near as bright and cheerful as I thought it would be when I started writing it. Oh well.

And second, I have no idea what pairings there will be – I will have romance, in small doses, but for now it doesn't fit and I have no idea what pairings will develop as my muse drives me onwards. Also, I've only ever had one girlfriend, and that left me more confused about how relationships are supposed to work than when I was single, so yeah.

Third – I was hoping to put out like one chapter a week, but then college was like "no, fuck you" so it'll probably be a chapter every two weeks or so. I'll try to get out the next chapter on the tenth though, because of Naruto's b-day. I put this chapter out on the second because it's my b-day, so I feel it's only fair to him…

So yeah, thanks for the reviews, and I hope y'all enjoyed this. This is so far my most successful story, even at only two chapters.

Also, this chapter was written a different way from any other story I've written, it was basically pieced together from snippets written on various papers, so it may need another rework, but I wanted to get it out today. Sorry for any missed mistakes or whatnots.

~ "No, fuck you." – college life

Kep